The Ceylon News

Sri Lankan troops claim to have established total control over the northern peninsula of Jaffna after flushing out the last remaining pockets of rebel resistance.

Government soldiers captured Chundikkulam village, a final strip of Tamil Tiger rebel-held land on Wednesday, brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, said.

Nanayakkara said that all of Jaffna was now secured after the capture of Chundikkulam, where the rebels had several Sea Tiger bases.

There was no comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but their hold on the peninsula began crumbling last week after troops took Elephant Pass, the causeway linking Jaffna with the Sri Lankan mainland.

The Jaffna peninsula has long been seen as the symbolic heart of a 25-year-old separatist insurgency on the island.

Flight of civilians

Military officials said about 1,700 Tamil civilians had sought shelter with government forces after escaping from the remaining rebel-held areas of the island's north-east.

"In the past two weeks a total of 1,707 civilians have crossed into government-held areas in the north," a military official said, adding that the authorities were arranging emergency relief for them.

Authorities said that they had buried 41 bodies of suspected Tiger rebels killed by security forces in the latest fighting.

The burials came as warplanes bombed and destroyed two LTTE artillery guns, the defence ministry said. It was not clear how many artillery pieces the Tigers still had.

The air force had stepped up raids against the remaining LTTE strong points in the island's north on Tuesday with at least 10 bombing sorties, a ministry spokesman said.

Fighting was also reported around guerrilla-controlled Mullaittivu district.

The LTTE has not commented on the latest fighting, but has admitted losing ground in recent weeks, including in the town of Kilinochchi, which they used as their political base for nearly a decade.